


Snow day at the circus

by dancergrl1



Category: The Greatest Showman (2017)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Philip is a big brother, Sledding, Snow Day, Snowball Fight, Snowmen, Storytelling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-09
Updated: 2018-02-09
Packaged: 2019-03-15 17:45:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13618461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dancergrl1/pseuds/dancergrl1
Summary: Philip declares a snow day. Chaos ensues, and then fluff happens. Really, it’s adorable.





	Snow day at the circus

**Author's Note:**

> So i had a snow day at school yesterday and thought, Hm, how would the TGS characters handle it? So, i asked around, and...this is what happens.

PT Barnum waltzed into the back of the tent, shaking snow off his coat and letting it melt in his hair. “It is seriously coming down out there.” Philip hears his exclamation as he comes down the stairs and shakes his head. It had been predicted to snow heavily since the clouds gathered days ago. After all, it was winter in New York City. 

“Maybe we should call the show for tonight. It’s not safe for people to be risking their safety for the show.” Philip said evenly. 

“Oh, a snow day!” Lettie exclaimed. 

“I haven’t had one of those since I left home!” Tom added. 

“Snow?” Anne asked. “I’ve never seen it!” 

WD smiled. He’d never seen it either. 

“Then it’s settled. It’s a snow day.” Philip stated. He remembered the trouble he and his friends would get into on snow days. Snowball fights, snowman contests, and sliding with extra boxes down the hill in the back of the school. He smiled wistfully. If only. 

Anne looks at him, eyes somewhere else, a small smile on his face. She knew, for once, that he was remembering something happy. 

A shout roused them both from their thoughts. “I know!” Tom announced, chest puffed out with pride. Philip grimaced. He had a feeling he know what was coming. “SNOWBALL FIGHT!” Tom shouted. Everyone ran to get their coats and hats, then raced out the flap. Snow was falling thickly around them. It would have been almost romantic. If not for the shouting and shrieking.

Philip gazed at Anne, observing the wonder filled smile on her face, and the snow that looked like it belonged in her hair, coiled as it was. Then he felt the snow splatter across the back of his coat. He looked behind him, and noticed a snickering WD running off, leaving Tom to look like he was going to take the blame. Tom ratted him out, however, and pointed towards him. Philip motioned for him to be quiet, and made a carefully packed snowball and hurled it as hard as he could towards WD. His projectile hit its mark. WD grunted, the impact may have been a tad harder than he’d anticipated. 

“CARLYLE!” He roared. Philip was laughing too hard to even attempt to look contrite. Tom and WD teamed up against Carlyle, who dragged into into the foray. After all of them were sufficiently covered in snow, they noticed what Constantine and the albino twins were doing. They’d started rolling snowballs, and the Irish Giant was helping them put them on top. They had 3 huge ones rolled already, and WD had started rolling a fourth. He didn’t know what for, but it looked fun. 

Philip took Tom, and they started looking around for props and things to make it look better. They didn’t really know where Anne had disappeared to. As they rolled snowballs and adorned the snowman, Philip and Tom had gotten rather tired of waiting about, and started their own. It was, no doubt, going to be shorter, but Tom had gotten his shoulderboards and general’s hat to make it fancier. Philip had donated his spare tie and coat to the cause, and the face was made from discarded buttons and props from the back room. 

They turned towards the rivaling snowman confidently, and despite it being a whopping 5 snowballs high, the adornments weren’t nearly as sparkling as the one from Philip and Tom. Philip, however, did notice one thing that looked incredibly familiar perched jauntily atop their snowman’s head. His tophat. From his wardrobe. In his office. “ANNE!” He bellowed. Anne, anticipating his reaction, was already laughing. He marched over to their snowman, and not brave enough to take it off the top, demanded it back. Anne, not willing to give up so easily, snatched it off the top of the snowman and began to run. Philip gave chase. 

“Bring it back! I want my hat back!” Anne, being far more athletic due to her act, was far ahead of him, laughing all the while. He continued to chase her in and around the collection of tents in the field, and occasionally back through the snow encampment. Anne then bolted towards to opening to the tent. “Cold, are you?” He teased. THe both slowed through the back room in the interest of not tripping. What happened next, Philip should have expected. Anne began to climb the ropes, his hat pushed firmly down on her head. He couldn’t help himself. He laughed. She looked so comical, climbing the ropes so lithely with his tophat on her head. He only had one response to her challenge: Introduce one to her. 

“WD! I need your help with your sister!” He called out. 

WD came running, thinking it was an emergency. When he arrived, Philip simply pointed up. “I want. My hat.” He said, sounding more like Helen. WD shook his head, a smile splitting his face. He could not believe that this is what his life had come to. 

He reached for a rope, and climbed to a platform to grab a bar. Anne was sitting at the top of the tent, like a child on a swing. She teasingly swung his hat around, daring him to try to come to get it. She never saw her brother coming around from the back. On his rope, holding himself with one hand, he snatched the hat right out of her hand. He continued to spiral downwards, the hat now on his head to secure it and keeping his hands free. His feet hit the ground and he handed the hat back off to its owner. 

Lettie called out from the entrance to the dressing area. “Hot chocolate’s ready!” 

The troupe rushed towards the back. It was so cold, the warm drink sounded wonderful. They found two small, extra bodies bouncing happily next to Lettie. “Philip!” They shouted. Philip prepared for impact. He caught Helen and Caroline climbed on top of her. 

“What are you doing here?” He asked, surprised. 

“Daddy brought us!” Caroline stated. She slid off and went over to see Anne instead. Philip swung Helen around a few more times before he put her down. 

They sat down with the rest of the group, and they all happily drank their hot chocolate. It occurred to Philip that, on one side of their plot, there was a decently sized hill. They had plenty of crates. “Caroline, Helen, have you ever been Sledding?” 

Caroline tilted her head, but Helen answered. “What’s sledding?” She asked, wrinkling her nose. It didn’t sound very fun. 

Philip bowed, and put his hand out. “Let me show you.” He said regally. Giggling, the girls followed him. Regaining their coats, some of the troupe followed him too. Philip stood at the top of the hill, and was carefully putting the girls into a spare crate. He began running down the hill, and jumped into the crate behind them. When they reached the bottom of the hill, he jumped out and lifted the girls out. “That, ladies, was sledding.” He stated. Caroline shook her head, but Helen was beaming. The group did a few more runs down the hill, and decided it was much too cold. They tromped back into the tent to gather around the fire. Many games of cards and many stories had been traded around the fire. It was like the unofficial center of the circus. 

As they all gathered around the fire, the girls looked at Philip. “Philip, Philip! Won’t you pleeeease tell us a story, Philip?!” They begged. Philip smiled. He’d spent many nights telling them stories before bed at the Barnum’s house. 

“I guess I can. But just this once, mind.” He said, acting like it was far more of a begrudgement than it was. 

Philip begins, and decides to tell his story about his snow days in boarding school. “It was a dark and snowy day in December, about two weeks before Christmas if I recall. The snow was coming down so thickly, the headmaster had canceled classes. Half of the teachers weren’t able to make it through the snow. Me and my friends Gabriel and Lawrence were bored, and begged a couple of empty crates from the kitchen. We had this enormous hill around the back, that sloped away from the school. We all decided that we wanted to try sledding in the same crate together. Well, that was a bad idea. We could barely fit, and somehow I got elected to be the runner. I had to get this large crate with three boys in it going down this enormous hill, and then jump into it as well. It didn’t work out. I was the smallest of all three and this crate was as tall as my waist at the time. I could barely jump in. So I start running, and we hit the steepest part of the hill. The crate, by now, is going faster than I can keep up with it. I don’t manage to jump into it, but trip over a tree root and get sent flying head over heels down this hill. My friends have hit the bottom of the hill, and you think any of them offered to help? You’d imagine not, I suppose. We walk back in, I covered in snow, they dragging the crate, and am met by the house parent too our dormitory. I was cleaning horse stalls for a month.” He finished grandly. Caroline and Helen were giggling, and even Lettie cracked an amused smile. Anne shook her head. He would be the one that rolled down the hill instead of getting in the sled. 

PT Barnum himself then strolled in. “Ah, what a cozy scene I’ve stumbled upon!” He announced. “It would be a shame if I were to break the mood, but here I am anyways.” He fluffed his coat with a flourish and joined the circle. 

Philip decided to hand off his showmanship to the greatest showman himself. “Barnum, do you have any stories of snow days?” He asked with a smile. An unreadable look crossed Barnum’s face for a moment, and Philip was unsure of what he’d just done. But as quickly as it had come, it had passed. “Actually, I do. When I worked on the railroad, there was an enormous snowstorm that shut down all production. There was no way to lay ties in this type of storm, oh no. So, a group of us decided to explore the environment, try to be ‘tough guys’. We end up lost, miles from camp, in this snowy forest. It was nearly sunset, and just like now, silent as a tomb. Suddenly, the ground underneath me is gone. I’m sliding all the way down this mountain, tree branches whipping my face, roots tearing up the only pants I owned. I come to a stop with a crack against an unusually large rock. I start shouting, but nobody can hear me. I stayed there for hours, and finally, someone came to rescue me. I became known as Bumbling Barnum after that.” He finished with a smile. 

Philip suspected that wasn’t the entire story. But he didn’t push, either. He felt Caroline growing heavier in his lap, and saw Helen starting to drift off on Lettie. They’d had a plenty of excitement for the day. 

“Alright, Alright, storytime is over. Finish your drinks, and off to bed with you lot. WE have a show!” Philip announced. Through the grumbling, he picked out “You’re not our dad,” and the old favorite “We’re not kids, ya know!”

Philip smiled. Tomorrow they’d be back onstage, entertaining, but tonight, they’d bonded. It was definitely worth it for that.


End file.
